Game apparatus



Jan. 15, 1935. w R MCDONALD 1,987,695

GAME APPARATUS Filed Feb. 1, 1932 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR WILLIAM l2 MCDONALD ATTGRNEY Jan. 15, 1935. w. R, M DONALD GAME APPARATUS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 1, 1952 INVENTOR \\VVILLIAM l2 MCDONALD 72 BY flg I 2 ATH'QQNEY Jan. 15, 1935.

w. R. MCDONALD 1,987,695

GAME] APPARATUS Filed Feb. 1. 1932 SheetS-Sheet 5 75 5 77 79- W W ,0; 47 Q5 42 95 81 45 9s 61 295 I 78 69 IF i t? I 77, I

EZ/JGY i y 73 1 g 72 1 W w-M 9 69 W s 97 I 05% 7 75 64 9 5 77 29 ,9 m INVENTOF? WILLIAM Q MCDONALD J 4) 92 .705

Patented Jan. 15, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GAME APPARATUS William R. McDonald, Los Angeles, Calif. Application February 1, 1932, Serial- No. 590,117- v 6 Claims.

This invention has to do with games of skill and is more particularly related to apparatus for playing a game in which the final score obtained is dependent entirely upon the skill of the oper.-

ator. Although it-is one object of the present invention to produce an apparatus of the class described which is coin-operated, it is to be under,- stood that the invention may be embodied in devices for home use in which the construction will be somewhat modified and will of coursebe cheaper to manufacture.

The device contemplated by this invention consists in a general way. of a table, a shelf, or a board which has a playing field formed thereon; The playing field is provided with an uneven surface having a plurality of depressions and corresponding elevations formed thereon. In addition to the depressions and elevations I prefer to provide the playing field with an irregular winding path leading from a starting point to a finishing point. This path is provided with a series of traps or hazards and the various depressions are provided with wells or pockets adapted to receive playing pieces, the wells being evaluated according to the ease with which a playing piece may rollirom the path into thecorresponding depression. The well at the end of the path is preferably made the most difiicult to approach and is, of course, given the highest value and the wells as they become nearer the starting point are of correspondingly decreasing value.

The object of the game is to. advance a'playing piece or playing pieces by means of a suitable arm or cue from the startingpoint into the well or wells of highest value. It is. to be understood, of course, that the rules of play may be varied somewhat, for example, thevarious depressions instead of beingprovided'with wells may simply be provided with rather a steep inclined edge soas to make the approach fromthe depression. to the path difficult and the object of the game may be to advance the playing piece along the path into a well or cup provided at the end of thepath with the minimum number of strokes to advance the a substantial. distance above the field of play so as to clear the playing pieces, the end of the arm being provided with a downwardly projecting nose or knob which is usedto'advance the ball or playing piece along the path. In this particular form of my invention the fieldfof play is provided with a plurality of cups or wells, each of which'is con structed so as to contain a single playing piece. .Theplaying pieces, after they have been received in thecup or well, cannot be removed until a release to. be described later. in the specification, has been efiected by means of the coin control. In addition to the coin operated means 'for releasing .the balls or playing pieces from the .various pockets or wells, I provide additional means the field of play. It is to be understood that, in

operating thedevice as a: coin operated machine,

and the handle for operating the arm, .a handle ier delivering the balls to the field,and a plunger or handle for operating the ball release are preferably all extended from one side of the case.

As an added feature to the game contemplated by this-invention; I have devised means in the form of a mirror for reflecting'the field of play to the operatonsuch means being associated with additional means for concealing the actual field of play from the view of the operator. The reflecting .means; are preferably optional 'in their use, but itwill beseenithat suchmeans, in addition to the peculiar construction'of the arm and arm operating mechanism; makes the movement of the armwith respectto'thehandle quite confusingand .will tax to a' greaterdegree' the skill of the operators, 1 v

The details in the construction of a preferred form of myinvention; together with other objects attending its production, will be best/understood fromthe following description of the accompanying drawings which. are chosen for illustrative purposes only, and in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing a preferred form of my invention; V I

Fig. 2 is a plan viewwith parts broken away illustratingthe operating mechanism of the .device shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a sectionalelevation which may be considered as having been taken in a plane repre sented by the: line 33 inFig; 2;

for .deliveringthe playing; piecesindividually to Fig. 4 is a sectional elevation taken in a plane represented by the line 4-4 in Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation taken in a plane represented by the line 55 in Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary section enlarged to illustrate the mechanism employed in delivering the balls or playing pieces to the field of play;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary section taken in a plane represented by the line 77 in Fig. 2 and enlarged to illustrate further details inthe ball elevating mechanism;

Fig. 8 is a sectional view taken in a plane represented by the line 88 in Fig. 2 and illustrates certain details in the construction of the coin control;

Fig. 9 is a fragmentary view of theelement shown in Fig. 8 illustrating the manner in which a coin operates the coin controlled mechanism;

Fig. 10 is a fragmentary section taken in a plane represented by the line 10-10 in Fig. 8;

Fig. 11 is. a fragmentary section taken in a plane represented by the. line 11-11 in Fig. 9;

Fig. 12 is a fragmentary sectional elevation taken in a plane represented by the line 12--12 in. Fig. 2;

Fig. 13 is an enlarged sectional elevation taken through the shelf or table comprising the field of play and illustrating the manner in which the path and irregularities of the field are. formed thereon; and v Fig. 14 is; a fragmentary view showing a modified form of my invention.

More particularly describing the invention as herein illustrated, reference-numeral 11 indicates a box or case which is. shown as having a bottom 12, a top 13 and side members generally indicated by reference numeral 14. The bottom 12 is preferably hinged. to the lower; portion of the case 11, so. as to: permit access. into. the coin receiving box and: is provided with, a lock indicated by referencenumeral 15. The top 13 is also hinged to the. central portion of the box and is locked thereto by the lock generally indicated. by reference numeral 16. It is to: be understood that this is merely apreferredi form of construction, other expedients in thebox construction will of course be readily apparent to those familiar with the. art and; where the game is made for home use rather than commercial use, this construction may or course. be varied considerably. The top 13. of the box is'provi'dedwith an opening 1'7 which contains a transparentwindow 18,. through which the field ofplay to-be; described later in the specification may be observed.

As pointed out earlier in the specification the apparatus may be. provided with a mirror 19 which is shown as being hinged to; the cover near the forward edge. of the opening 17 so as to reflect the field of play to. the observer. In addition I provide. a shield 20. which. is. mounted near the rear edge of the opening so as to conceal the actual: field of-play from the observer. Inasmuch as. the-mirror reverses the position of all objects on the field of play, it will: be seen that this is more or less confusing and is a greater tax on the skill; of the player- Mounted. in the case 11 below the window 18 Iprovide what I may term a shelf, table, or playing board 22 which has formed upon its upper surface a field of play 23. This field: of play. isprovided' with an irregular surface having a pluralityof" depressions indicated. generally by reference numeral. 24and a plurality of 'ence numeral 2'7. In addition to the depressions 24 the field of play is provided with an irregular winding path indicated by reference numeral 28 which follows a more or less crooked course along the upper edge of the various elevations and twists in and out among the depressions containing the wells. This path is made extremely shallow so that a playing piece such as the ball or sphere 29 when carefully moved therealong will not roll into the depressions on either side of the path. The path is, however, provided with traps or hazards, generally indicated by reference numeral 30 in Figs. 2 and 13. These hazards are in the form of depressions in the path which are associated with grooves or channels having a very slightslope into which the playing piece if not carefully guarded by the advancing means will roll into a well of low value.

It is an important feature of the apparatus that the depressions into which the playing piece or ball will most readily roll have the lowest value, for example the well nearest the starting point has a value of 10, the well in the center of the field of play toward which all of the inside depressions lead also has a value of 10, and so. on until the well at the end of the. path. which is the most difficultly accessible, has a valueof 500. The 500- well is placed upon a. slightly raised portion from which the. playing piece has. a tendency to roll into. either of the 10 value wells. and it requires the utmost skill and care to advance the ball or playing piece into this well. It is to be. understood, of course, that the arrangement-of the wells or pockets and the. manner of evaluating them may be varied without departing from the scope of the invention.

In addition to the wells. just described on the main field of p1ay,.I have provided a. series of wells along the'edge of the. field of play which may for example, have. a value of. 5 or. a. minus 5, depending upon whether or not means are pro.- vided for. retaining the playing pieces. in these wells. Instead of using the irregularly surfaced field with the depressions therein, I may obtain the same effect by using; playing. pieces of steel or' other magnetic material and placing magnets in or below the field of play in offset relation with the path as. indicated at M in Fig. 14, where the field of play is indicated at F. The magnets. may also be used with the irregular. field.

It is to be understood that the field of play need not necessarily be-a miniaturefield. such as shown in the drawings, butmay be of dimensions corresponding substantially to the ordinary poolor billard' table, in which event the. wells instead of being in the form. of cups provided in the various depressions, may if desired be constructed as hazards so that the ball or playing piece can be advanced with diiiiculty from the well. back up onto the shallow path. In this. event: the object of the game would notv be to. obtain the. largest score possible, which is computed. by adding. the value of the various wells into which the balls. or playing pieces lodge themselves, but would be calculated by the minimum number: of'. strokes or movements of thearm. or cue employed in elevating the ball or playing piece. from the various hazard wells back on to the: path, in advancing the ball to the end of the path.

In the device chosenxfor'purposesa of illustration and whichforms the. subject matter of. the present application, however, the wellson the field aremade; in-the form of. cups which are of a size such that they will. be. filled by one of the balls or playing pieces 29.- and which areformed. by

boring holes of the proper diameter completely through the board or table which comprises the field of play. The balls or playing pieces are held in the pockets by a coin-released mechanism 35 to be described later in the specification.

As was mentioned in the early part of the specification, various means may be employed in advancing the ball or playing piece from its starting point A along the path, for example, if the field is of a large size and designed for home use, an ordinary billiard cue may be employed for this purpose. In the present device I show the ball advancing means as comprising an arm 38 which is mounted on the case above the playing field at a distance such that the longitudinal portion of the arm will clear a ball or playing piece on the field. The end of the arm is projected downwardly to form a knob or nose 39 which is preferably enlarged and is arranged so as to be moved into engagement with the ball or sphere on the field of play. The arm 38 may be operated through a slot at one edge of the field of play by a handle formed directly thereon but as a means of adding interest to the game and increasing the element of skill therein I provide this arm with a novel operating mechanism which is shown as comprising a lever member 40 which is pivoted to the arm as indicated at 40a and which is swingably and slidably mounted in the case by passing it through an opening 41 in a head 42 formed on a shank 43 which is rotatably mounted in a standard 44 secured to a shelf or horizontal partition 45 in the case by means of bolts 46. The lever 40 is provided with an adjustable stop 48 which limits its outward movement and the outer end of the lever is provided with a handle 49. It will be seen, therefore, that the lever 40 has both a sliding and swinging movement in the case and that this lever will act in combination with what I have termed a fulcrum lever 50 to impart universal movement to the arm 38 in a substantially horizontal plane or in a plane which is parallel with the field of play. The fulcrum lever 50 is pivoted to a bracket member 38 which forms a part of the lever 138 and has its fixed'pivot on a standard 51 which is secured to the plate 45, as indicated at 52.

In order that the arm may always be yieldably drawn toward a neutral position I provide a tension spring 54 which is shown as having one end secured to the pivot pin 40a and is secured at its other end to the side of the case as indicated at 55. In the operation of the device it will be seen that by skillfully sliding and swinging the lever 49 a ball or playing piece 29 may be advanced along the shallow path on the field of play and the knob or nose 39 may be skillfully used to prevent the ball leaving the path in the various traps or hazards. The dotted line position of the lever and arm mechanism in Fig. 2 indicates the manner in which the knob of the arm is engaged with a playing piece during its advance along the path.

In a coin-operated game of this nature, as pointed out above, I prefer to use several balls or playing pieces which may be advanced into the various pockets, such playing pieces being retained in the pockets by a sliding gate plate which is shown as being mounted on the end portion of a plunger member 61. The plunger 61 is supported by a guide bracket 62 secured in any suitable manner in the case and extends through an aperture 63 in a partition member 64 and through an aperture 65 in the side of the case so that its end may be engaged by an operator for moving the plate 60. The plate 60 is provided with a plurality of apertures 66 arranged so as to be brought into alignment with the various pockets when the plunger is advanced to its forward or inner position. A .tension spring 6'7 is provided for the purpose of maintaining the plate in the position shown in Fig. 3 where the apertures or pockets are closed,

The move-ment'of the plunger 61 is governed by a coin operatedrnechanism which is shown as comprising a lever member 68 pivotally mounted upon a bracket 69 as indicated at 70. The end 71 of this lever member is positioned below the mouth '72; of a coin channel 73 and this coin channel 73 is positioned with its open upper end beneath a coin slot 74 formed in the top 13 of the case. The end 71 of the lever member is positioned above an opening 75 in the shelf or partition 45 through which the coin is adapted to fall into a coin compartment '76 therebelow. One side of the coin channel is provided with an opening '78 adapted to receive the bent end portion 79 of a rod member 80 which has its upper end secured in a block 81 mounted'on the plunger 61. constitute a stop which will normally engage the upper end of the lever member 68 which normally rests upon the plunger 61. However, when a coin is dropped into the coin channel it falls upon the end portion 71 of the lever lifting it to the position indicated in the dot and dash lines in Fig. 4, sothat the block or other suitable stopon the plunger will pass beneath the lower end of the lever, permitting the plunger to be moved inwardly to a position in'which the balls will fall through the openings in the field of play. The inward movement of the plunger during such an operation forces the bent end 79 of the rod 80 into engagement with'the coin C, pushing it is released and drawn back to its position by the coil spring. The plunger cannot again be operated until another coin is deposited into the coin channel.

After the balls or playing pieces have been released in the manner just described, they drop onto an inclined plate or floor which is situated just below the field of playand which inclines downwardly to an inclined groove 91 which slopes This block is situated so as to til toward an opening 92 formed in the vertical partition 64.

For the purpose of delivering the balls or playing pieces to the field of play, I provide an arm or lever member 93 which is pivoted to the partition 64 as indicated at 95. This arm has a hollow block 96 forming a pocket 9'7 provided on its end in a manner such that the opening or pocket large enough to hold one ball therein is normally situated opposite the opening 92 in the partition. It will be seen, therefore, that when the lever member 93 is in the normal position shown in full lines in Fig. '7 and in Fig. 5, the balls or playing pieces drop into the opening or pocket 97 and when a new ball is to be delivered to the field of play the lever member 93 is lifted through the medium of a hook 98 mounted in a shaft 99, the latter having a handle 100 provided thereon. This lever is thus lifted to the dot and dash line position shown in Fig. 7 where the pocket is brought into opposed relation with an opening 101 through which the ball or playing piece drops on to the field of play. In order to prevent the possibility of the ball dropping back out of the opening due to the knob being positioned adjacent the opening or for any other reason, I provide a gate 102 which is pivoted to the partition 64, as indicated at 103, such gate being adapted to drop down over the opening and rest on a stop 104 when in normal position. In order to prevent the balls or playing pieces remaining in the groove from rolling out of the opening 92 when one of them is being delivered to the field of play, I provide a spring member indicated at 105 which has its end arranged so as to be positioned in the opening 92 when the arm or lever member 93 is raised. The spring stop 95 is secured to the plate 15 as indicated at 106, and is of a resiliency such that it is forced down as indicated in Fig. 5 by the Weight of the hollow block or pocket member 96 on the end of the arm or lever.

It will be apparent from the foregoing description that the device contemplated by this invention comprises a game apparatus which is of simple form and construction and readily lends itself to use either in a commercial way or as a game for use in the home. As pointed out above, the game is not necessarily confined to the specific construction shown in the drawings, but may be modified by varying the size of the field, the arrangement of the pockets, depressions and path thereon, and although I consider the particular form of arm and arm operating mechanism to be a novel and important feature to the present invention, I feel that this construction can be modified and varied within wide limits without departing from the actual scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

I claim as my invention: v

1. A game apparatus embodyingi a case; a field of play mounted in said case, said field of play having a plurality of wells adapted to receive playing pieces; a lever member mounted in said case for swinging and sliding movement in a substantially horizontal plane; a handle on said lever member; an arm pivotally attached to said lever and having its end portion positioned above said field of play for moving a playing piece thereover; and a movable fulcrum for said arm.

2. A game apparatus embodying: a case; a field of play mounted in said case, said field of play having a plurality of wells adapted to receive playing pieces; a lever member mounted in said case for swinging and sliding movement in a substan'- tially horizontal plane; a handle on said lever member; an arm pivotally attached to said lever and having its end portion positioned above said field of play for moving a playing piece thereover; a movable fulcrum for said arm; and yieldable means for holding said arm ina predetermined neutral position.

3. A game apparatus embodying: a case; a field of play mounted in said case, said field of play having a plurality of wells adapted to receive playing pieces; a lever member mounted in said case for swinging and sliding movement in a substantially horizontal plane; a handle on said lever member; an arm pivotallyattached to said lever and having its end portion positioned above said field of play for moving a playing piece thereover;

and a swinging link mounted in said case with its free end pivotally attached to said arm.

4. A game apparatus embodying: a case; a field of play mounted in said case, said field of play having a plurality of wells adapted to receive playing pieces; a lever member mounted in said case for swinging and sliding movement in a substantially horizontal plane; a handle on said lever member; an arm pivotally attached to said lever; a knob on the end of said arm adapted to engage playing pieces on said. field of play; and a mov- ;;v

able fulcrum for said arm.

5. A game apparatus embodying: a case; a field of play mounted in said case, said field of play having a plurality of wells adapted to receive playing pieces; a lever member mounted in said case for swinging and sliding movement in a subing pieces; a universally movable manually actuated jointed member mounted in said case movable over the field of play throughout the said field for moving a playing piece thereon; means for delivering a playing piece to said field of play;

releasable means for holding said playing pieces in said wells; and coin controlled means for releasing said playing piece holding means.

WILiLiAi/i R. McijoriALi 

